Fast food consumers don’t necessarily equate quick serve restaurants with quality ingredients. Contrary to this perception, McDonald’s restaurants actually crack fresh eggs daily, on premises. The brief was to call the public’s attention to this little-known fact.To a somewhat skeptical audience, the fact that McDonald’s cracks fresh eggs daily is big news. Therefore, instead of just running an ad, the team created a fun, engaging spectacle to both inform and entertain the public.The opening and closing egg was constructed atop the platform of a city outdoor board in Chicago.A press conference was held to unveil the completed egg. The launch coincided with an Egg McMuffin promotion. From day one, the egg’s opening and closing coincided with the McDonald’s breakfast serving schedule.

The world famous Egg McMuffin is cooked fresh in McDonald’s restaurants every morning using fresh-cracked USDA, Grade A eggs. During the breakfast daypart, a giant egg cracked open outside of a McDonald’s restaurant to reveal that Egg McMuffin sandwiches are made with fresh cracked eggs. The egg then closed keeping customers curious throughout the day and mimicking the eggs cracked fresh every morning in McDonald’s restaurants across the United States. The gigantic egg spectacle was built across the street from Wrigley Field and drew massive crowds for it’s entire four month tenure.

YouTube videos of the egg were filmed and posted by consumers and the never-been-done before creative was being talked about on several blog pages across the globe throughout countries in Europe, Asia and South America. Beyond this, the story of McDonald’s food quality campaign reached the press and industry news like Ad Age, Crain’s Chicago Business, Daily Herald, Reuters, USA Today and was broadcasted on NBC 5 news.

Consumers were impressed by McDonald’s innovation: “So I live 3 blocks from [egg] and I’ve been meaning to blog about it but haven’t gotten a good pic yet. It’s right across from Wrigley Field and it is awesome! […] I thought it was a genius marketing move because it is a highly visible reminder that McDonald’s uses real eggs for breakfast.” (Source: Seriouseats.com, Barredowl, July 19, 2008) During the promotional period, sales growth of Egg McMuffin in Chicago outpaced the national average by 700%.